Time off

She is on holiday so it's time to climb and survey her world from the highest heights and breathe in the freedom.

The weekend was

In one word, Joyful!!

It entailed aggressive garden work on Friday, in order to progress to fertilizing later this week. Then on Saturday morning, I had gym training from an ex-marine. This part was more painful than joyful. Squatting down is still a joke - to my sister anyway - she just laughs and lifts her hand in the L shape! What sympathy!

So clearly, the balance of my day was spent quietly... to my favourite coffee hangout and grocery shopping, then home to my track suit.

I treasure the moments of quiet during the day. I cannot function when its full throttle all the time. On Saturday I made individual pots of tea for Rebecca and myself, put everything on a tray and called her to my side with our read-aloud book that we are working through. Those moments of connection fill me and her. When she is in that mood she is much more open and we get to talk about things that she normally wouldn't share with me, 'cause she would be outside baking mud pies or dressing her Barbies or something equally important to an eight year old. Those things are good, but I also need time to speak to her heart (while she is still young and listens to mama).

Sunday dawned and roused me from slumber with perfect 'Sabbath weather' - overcast with the promise of rain, which did not disappoint. This is the stuff that makes my weekends great.

Hope yours was a good one! Enjoy the week!

Little egg pies

An easy and filling start to the day... a thin pastry, a little bacon or tomato (or both), then plop an egg on top, with a light sprinkle of cheese and in the oven it goes, while you take a walk and watch the sunrise. Back in time for breakfast.



Excellent for lunch with a salad.

Keep no account of wrongs, it's energy wasted

"Life appears to me too short to be spent

nursing animosity or registering wrongs"

~ by

Charlotte Bronte

Flora rebirth

The graceful pink blooms of the peach tree hold promise.




The colours begin to show off...






This clivia was rescued and is finally beginning to look healthy.

Weekends are for

After a busy weekend, today was spent watching movies, eating Custard Tart and playing Sudoku.

Peter Pan's sea urchin

My baby was in Peter Pan this weekend... she looked so cute in her vivid green 'sea urchin' costume.

At hair and make up.




Ready for the stage.

Cinnamon and Cranberry Oat Biscuits

Rebecca's winter sports have drawn to a close for this year, meaning that I have more time in the afternoons. I decided to fill the cookie jar. These biscuits are very moreish with a glass of milk.

1 egg
100g demarera sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
80g butter

In a bowl measure and add the following
100g sifted wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 and 1/3 cup of oats
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons sunflower seeds
3 tablespoons dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 180 deg Cel. Whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla. Beat in the butter (at room temperature) Add this egg and butter mixture to your flour bowl with all the dry ingredients. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Roll into walnut size balls and place on a greased (or wax lined) tray. Flatten slightly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

This makes about 25 biscuits and the recipe is worth doubling up. If you don't have a sweet tooth, just use 80g of sugar which I think works just fine.

Muffin making

Yesterday afternoon was spent baking. I tried to make her favourite Chocolate Muffins a little healthier so this is what we did and everyone had seconds... we called it...



Becca Boo Muffins

Sift
1 cup of stone-ground wholemeal flour (or use nutty wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Add to flour
1/4 cup of natural demerara sugar
2 tablespoons wheatgerm or ground seeds
1 cup grated zucchini (or half zucchini + half grated apple)

Take 3/4 cup - 1 cup dark chocolate, chopped into chunks and melt.

Whisk in a jug
100 ml natural yoghurt
40 ml olive oil
2 medium eggs

Sift all the dry ingredients and then add the sugar, wheatgerm + veg (squeeze the zucchini after grating to get rid of excess water). After melting the chocolate add this to the three whisked ingredients. Mix the dry and wet together with a wooden spoon (don't over mix). Ladle into the muffin pans.

Bake at 180 degrees Cel for 25 - 30 minutes. Mine were done by 25 minutes. Makes 12 - 15 muffins. We could hardly wait for them to cool down to have with coffee. They were real good and not too sweet like usual chocolate muffins. The zucchini melted away and the muffins tasted moist and delicious.

The very best garden helper

Suddenly everything in the garden is growing like crazy, so enlisting a little help is in order.
Even though she loses momentum before the rest of us, watching her out there makes me smile.

Reaching out

I was chatting to a friend yesterday who was sponsoring the building of a house for someone in a township in Cape Town. She had taken her children, over the weekend to see it, so that they could see what they were contributing to.


I read this morning of an ordinary mother who was leaving her family for a week (to do some ministry work) and pictured her youngest little one's wet cheeks as she gave her mother a last hug before she boarded.


Wayne was telling me about this real tough guy who opened his house once a week and had a 'soup kitchen' for the locals with empty tummies (while Wayne & I try to do our bit... I'm a little too private a person to have strangers passing through my home - besides they would probably feel sorry for me and help with housekeeping)


It's marvellous isn't it... they don't make headlines but they do their part in loving the world around them. We are all so busy and if we don't do things on purpose we won't do them at all.